New Terminator Project May Head To Television

Terminator is set to be rebooted theatrically, but clearly Hollywood is ready to make more money off of the franchise. On Friday, Skydance Productions and Annapurna Pictures announced they would produce a new Terminator drama for television. The new project is clearly in the early stages still, but we know some of the key details related to the project.

First and foremost, the TV project will be produced around the same time as the film project that is currently in the works, although I daresay the film has a jumpstart on production, as it is already set up with a director, Alan Taylor, and is halfway to casting some of the film’s biggest roles. In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger has even signed on to return. The TV project has apparently hired the X-Men: First Class writing team of Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller to write the script; they will also executive produce. Additionally, Megan Ellison, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross, Laeta Kalogridis, and Patrick Lussier will all executive produce. If the latter two names sound familiar, it’s because they are also involved in producing the new theatrical film, which is expected to hit theaters in 2015.

The TV program marks the first time the Terminator franchise could grace the TV airways since 2009, when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles aired on Fox. That program only lasted for two seasons on the network, so I’m presuming the powers behind this project are looking for a lengthier run. But first, they’ll have to sell the currently untitled project to a network or cable station, where it will hopefully get picked up to pilot and then series.

That’s a lot of steps that need to be undergone to actually make it onto the air, but THR reports that the Terminator TV project has a pretty solid foundation to stand on. The concept for the series will follow a “critical moment” from the 1984 flick Terminator. In the film, the moment went one way, but in the TV project, the moment will continue in a totally different direction than the way the theatrical film chose to go. Reportedly, the new drama would be set up to function in the same universe as the new movie, as well, with plotlines crossing in “surprising” ways. Since we don’t know much about the rebooted movie, it would be difficult to surmise what this means exactly. Still, I think its safe to say that fans of the Terminator franchise should be intrigued.

We’ll let you know if this one finds a network. In the meantime, here’s a famous scene from Terminator 2 to get you jazzed up about the theatrical reboot and the potential series.